New For SAFE SQL!

SAFE just keeps getting better and better! SAFE SQL, the sixth major release, has over 300 new features!

If you are upgprading
from a previous
version of SAFE
Read This FIRST!

New Database Engine

SAFE 6.0 now runs under a SQL based data engine for five or more users. Our initial offering will be for Microsoft SQL Server 2000, though other database engines will be supported over time.

Balanced Performance
The new engine provides a far more balanced performance load. This means that no one user’s actions will impact server response for everyone else. So, for example, if one user is running a series of forms management reports (always processor intensive) it will not have a large effect on other users doing order entry.

Live Backup
You can use the SQL Server Admin Utilities to automatically backup your data while you are running SAFE. Backups may be run incrementally at various times during the day and, if a restore is necessary, it can be done in a matter of minutes.

Open Database Interface
There is no longer any need for the SoftVelocity ODBC drivers to access your databases. Any program (Crystal Reports, MS Excel, MS Word, etc.) which can read your Microsoft SQL databases can access SAFE data directly.

Probably the biggest implication of this is that you can also access this data using your own your web designs. Any professional web designer will be able to easily create pages which dynamically access SAFE data. This leads us to...

It’s a Filter. It’s a Locator. It’s Both!

Probably the biggest change in SAFE 6.0 will be the new locator system. Some background:

SQL is incompatible with our traditional search while you type system. Also, many new users complained that they would accidentally typethe wrong thing and end up in the wrong place in a browse. In fact, over the years our most common tech support call would be ‘the search is broken!’.

The new system works in the following way:

There is a Locator Field in every browse. Type something in this field and either press [Enter] or the [Tab] key. Two things will happen:

1. The browse will move to the first record matching your entry
2. The browse will be filtered to include only records matching your locator.
3. The sort order of the browse and the field to locate by is determined by clicking a column heading. Whatever column heading you click on, that is the order in which records will display. And that is the field which will be used for locating records.
4. The sort can also be set to ascending or descending order based by simply clicking again on the same column heading.

Example #1 (Locating a specific record): You are in the Sales Order Browse and wish to locate a Sales Order  by Order ID (the most common way to do so.) To do this, you would:

1. Open the Sales Order Browse
2. Click on the Order ID column. The browse will re-display in Order ID order.
3. Enter the Order ID (for our example, R12345) you wish to locate into the Locate By field.
4. Press [Enter]. The browse now immediately moves to order . R12345.

Example #2 (Selecting a range of records): This is the same example as above but with a twist. You are again looking for Sales Orders, by Order ID, but this time, you are not quite sure about the Order ID, so you enter a range to search for:

1. Open the Sales Order Browse
2. Click on the Order ID column. The browse will re-display in Order ID order.
3. Enter the beginning part of the Order ID (for our example, R12) you wish to locate into the Locate By field.
4. Press [Enter]. The browse now immediately moves to order. R12345 and displays all Orders which begin with R12.

TIP: It may make things easier to think of the Locator as a sort of ‘instant filter’.

Example #3 (Sorting a range of records): This is where it gets tricky! This is the same example as #2 but with one more twist. You are again looking for Sales Orders, by Order ID, but this time, you are not quite sure about the Order ID, so you enter a range to search for:

1. Click on the Invoice column. You are now viewing which all orders which begin with R12, but they are now sorted by Invoice #.
2. Click the Invoice column again. You are now viewing the same list of invoiced Orders, but which all orders which begin with R12, but they are now sorted  in descending order by Invoice #.

Fewer Tabs!

Related to the new browse locator is the absence of many of the browse tabs. Whenever a tab was provided, in a previous version, simply to display records in a different order, it is now history (Gone. AWOL. Removed.) This is because you can instantly change the order in which records are searched for simply by clicking on the appropriate column in the browse.

Example: You are in the Customer Browse and are viewing Customers by Customer ID. You decide to view them in Name Order instead. To do this:

1. Click on the Name column. The browse will re-display in Customer Name order.

Integrated Configuration

All configuration and Security is now handled within SAFE. Which means that there is no longer a separate program called Simple Accounting Security Extensions. All the functionality of SASE is now inside SAFE:

• Security is accessed from the Setup menu
• All Custom Settings in SASE are now in the appropriate screens in the Setup menu. For example, settings referring to Sales Orders, have been added to the Sales & A/R Setup screen.
• Separate Setup screens are also now in place for G/L and Inventory.
• Query Manager is now in the Utilties Main Menu.
• Area Code Fix is now in the Utilities Main Menu.
• Edit/Change IDs is now in the Utilities Main Menu.
• The Auto-Log Off and Message Broadcast features are now in the Utilities Main Menu.

Security Global Template

There is now a Global Template which can apply settings to all users, independent of their Security Template. So in essence, now users have two template:

The Global template, which applies to everyone and

A ‘regular’ Security Template which applies only to specific users

Easier Maintenance

The Global Template makes maintenance easier. If you have many Templates, this allows you to add a single setting which applies to all users without having to apply it to each Template individually.

More Options

The Global Template allows us to put many more configuration settings at your fingertips. Until now, we have only been able to put a small fraction of configuration settings in the Setup Screens, leaving the remainder to be entered in cryptic INI files and Windows Registry entries. The Global Template allows us to make an unlimited number of settings immediately available to Administrators inside SAFE.

Internal Custom Reports

As opposed to External Custom Reports? Yes. This function (in the Utilities Menu) lets you run Custom Reports created by us. The External Custom Reports were also a place for you to run reports created by your company using ReportWriter. However, some reports simply were not too complex to create in ReportWriter. Also, many of you complained of that updating your Data Dictionary when new versions of SAFE appeared was annoying. Finally, some of you would create very nice reports which would, unfortunately, have to be redone when a major release of SAFE would appear. Internal Custom Reports address all these problems. They are:

• Created by Suntower Systems specifically for your company’s needs
• Can be as sophisticated as any forms or reports included with SAFE
• Are automatically updated every time you install a new version of SAFE
• Are guaranteed to remain functional through each revision of SAFE

Sales Tax Zip Code Integration

SAFE 6.0 provides an update program for users of CCH TaxSolvers databases. Load your monthly updates into your Simple Accounting folder and SAFE will “automagically” update your Zip Code master file with the appropriate default Sales Tax ID. Why is this good? As you add new Customers and Sites, SAFE will automatically be able to populate the proper Sales Tax ID regardless of their location! If you sell into many jurisdictions this can not only save time, but also many costly data entry errors.

Requirements:

1. You will need to be a subscriber to the CCH/TaxSolver database service.
2. You must also set up your Tax IDs in SAFE to match the coding system used in the CCH database. These codes are derived from each State’s identification system and is usually a three or four digit code indicating a county or jurisdiction within a zip code.

Sales Orders & A/R

More Goof Proof Order Entry

1. You can now enter an Order Quantity only once; even for split shipped items. When it is time to enter Ship Quantities, SAFE can automatically fill in the Ship Quantity for you, or you can key in an override if there are overruns.
2. If you enter a release, you are automatically prevented from printing a PO for that line item. If you have already printed a PO for the line item, you will be prevented from changing the line item type to Release until you have voided the PO.
3. If you enter a production order, SAFE will warn you if you try to mark the line item as Shipped/Completed before you have done any of the following:
   1. Printed a P.O.
   2. Entered costs
   3. Entered Vendor Invoices and their invoice dates
   4. Entered a Vendor Job ID
   5. Entered a Ship Quantity
   6. Entered a Freight Cost with no Freight Price

Of course, you can override any of these if you have the proper Security rights.

Invoice Print Undo

You can now undo the printing of the last invoice (or batch). What this means is that, if you accidentally printed an invoice (or invoices) as you should not have, you can now undo the effects to A/R, G/L, A/P etc., rather than cloning and rebilling it. In order to do this, no other invoices may have yet been printed with a higher Invoice Number.

Note: This feature is available only to Administrators

Back Dated Aging Report

Standard equipment in 6.0 will include a Customer Aging Snapshot, which will let you recall the Aging for a given customer as of any prior month end. So when your accountant asks you for your A/R by customer as of last December and you can't lay hands on the copy of your Aging Report, you can simply re-generate the Aging as of December 31 and print. This is also great if you need to enter some credits or other adjustments way, way after the fact and see the results reflected on a prior Aging Report.

Direct A/P Entry Posting From Sales Orders

Now, you can not only view, but also enter A/P Bills directly from the Sales Order Browse at any phase of the Sales Order. In other words, you can click on any Sales Order Line Item and view any and all A/P already linked with that Line Item and add or edit any new costs. Why is this so great:

1. You get an instant visual record of all costs attached to a line item
2. You can enter/edit a cost at any phase of the Sales Order. For example, if the vendor requires pre-payment, you can still enter the Vendor Invoice while the Sales Order is in Open status.

Improved Sales Order Status Tracking

To accommodate more variety of workflows, and each line item on the Sales Order can now track

There is also a All Complete box you can check to indicate that the Sales Order is ‘done’ so that when it is billed there will be no back order, even though some items may not have shipped, or there were large underruns.

Order Scan Auto Tag

A new button in the Sales Order Browse automatically scans open orders for those which are ready to be Invoiced. You use a Query to tell SAFE which orders are ready to Invoice and  SAFE will automatically tag those Sales Orders.

Accounts Payable

More Flexible Check Printing

After printing a batch of checks, you now have the option to void only a selected list, rather than all checks in the batch.

Products And Inventory

More Room For Specs!

All ink fields are now 15 characters wide. All color fields are also fifteen characters wide. Some other construction fields, such as ‘Grade’ are now fourty characters wide.

Requests For Quotes Auto Acceptance

When you Accept an RFQ, you can automatically send your PO back to the plant, referencing their Quote #, when the Quote is converted to a Sales Order. This saves you having to open the Sales Order and generate the PO.

Requests For Quotes Linked With Contact Management

You may now create Contact Activities which are automatically linked with your RFQs. This allows you to annotate the progress of an RFQ if several discussions are required. You can look up these Activities either by:

·         The Contact you are quoting for or

·         The Vendor you are obtaining the quote from

General Ledger

Source Posting Lock

If you choose, you can now prevent users from making a change to any Source Transaction for which the G/L Period has been locked. For example, if you printed a check in Period 12, you may not void the check if Period 12 is now locked.

New Thirteenth Period Options

At the end of December (or your last fiscal month) many of you now close that period and work in a thirteenth period for a few days/weeks before continuing to the new fiscal year. SAFE now has a couple of new options for handling this period:

1. When you close Period 12, you are now asked if you wish to work in a new year or advance to Period 13. If you advance to the new year, Period 13 remains open for G/L entries, but sales and A/P post into the new year.
2. When you get around to closing Period 13, you are asked if you wish to ‘dump’ Sales, A/R and A/P into the new year, leave them in Period 13, or put them back into Period 12 (provided Period 12 is unlocked.)

Easier Cross Referencing Of Transactions

For example, if instantly tell whether or not a Sales Order, Vendor Bill or other transaction has properly posted to the G/L from their respective browse screens and you can view into which period it was posted. If the transaction was posted across more than one period (because of voids, rebills, etc.) the period in which the final version was posted is the one displayed.

Tree View Makes Viewing Component Balances Easy

Let’s say you have ten sales accounts. From the Financial Reports Browse, you can now:

1. Select the Parent Account for the period you wish to view
2. Click the new Tree View button to see the ten component (‘child’) accounts and view not only the total sales of the parent account, but also the sales of each of the ten ‘children’ and what percentage of total sales each represents.

Four Quarterly View

You can now instantly view a Balance Sheet and Income Statement for the current quarter and the past three quarters, either on screen or by report.

Note: The report may require a custom report design if you are not using our standard financial statements.

Contact Management

Batch E-mailing

You can now use any Mailing List in SAFE to send an e-mail message and log that message as an Activity for each Contact. In effect, SAFE gives you a bulk e-mailer.

Note: Athough bulk e-mailing can be a very valuable tool to stay in touch with your customers, as members of the Spam Haters Of America, we urge you to use this with caution!

PDF Form Letters

If you have Adobe Acrobat 5 (full version) you can create PDF form letters which can be automatically form-filled and either bulk faxed (or e-mailed) directly from your Activities browse. For example, you could create a Monthly Specials PDF for medical form customers and automatically fax a personalized version of the piece to all Contacts in that industry!

New Reports & Forms

PDF & XML Form Generation!

This isn’t really one report, but as a side benefit of our XML system (which debuted in SAFE 5.1) what this means is that now you can create any SAFE form in Adobe Acrobat format. At it’s most basic level, you can create PDF forms to replace your current SAFE forms which you could then modify to taste whenever you wish. But the PDF format provides for a number of enhancements, including the ability to incorporate Secure Electronic Signatures:

Secure E-Acknowledgements

You can generate customer acknowledgements which can be e-mailed to your customers for their secure electronic signature.

Secure E-Purchase Orders

You can generate customer acknowledgements which can be e-mailed to your customers for their secure electronic signature.

Cash Expectations Report

There is now an option which will predict cash receipts based upon each customer's payment history. In the current report, cash is expected based on the terms you sell under. In the new report, you can elect to have the report present cash expectations based on how your customers really pay. In other words, even though you bill some big customers Net 30, they may actually pay more close to every 45 days; that's just the way it is. The new report will take that into account when displaying the periods into which your cash can be expected.

Product Master Audit History Report

This is similar to the current Product History Audit Trail Report, however it can now be displayed for a range of Products, using any of the usual sort and filtering criteria in the Query Window. So, for example, if you want to see every 'in and out' for all of one customer's inventoried items over a range of dates, just set a Query and there it is. If you need a complete audit trail for all your stocked envelopes, set another Query and: there it is. In short, any Query you can apply to the Product Master can generate a complete audit trail for all matching Products.

Super Cool Twist
Though you will normally print this sorted by Product, with each Product’s detail grouped together, you can also sort (group) history by other fields such as Ship Date.

Example: you can Print a report detailing all releases for one month, with a subtotal of activity for each day and a sub-subtotal by each warehouse you released from (or To!)

Ollie And WebSAFE!

…or WebSAFE and Ollie! The inner workings of these two programs have always been proprietary. This is no longer the case. Both Ollie and WebSAFE are now available in a fully open-source version, written with industry standard ASP scripts. So what does that mean? It means that any competent web designer (not just us) can be engaged to completely modify the look and feel of your on line ordering system. Don’t like the color scheme? Change it! Want to add a completely different order entry screen? Go right ahead! Need different reports! Create them yourself! The code is all there for you (or us) to work with.

How To Obtain This Upgrade

IMPORTANT STEPS TO FOLLOW WHEN UPGRADING!